Stranger Things

[Alatar]

So, the new Netflix series is like the lovechild of Stephen Spielberg and Stephen King. It's dripping in 80's nostalgia. Only two episodes in, but loving it so far!

[Lalaith]

I will have to check it out! Thanks!

[yovargas]

Already on my very, very long "to watch" list.

[Lalaith]

One episode in. Sarah and I watched it last night. I missed your thing about Stephen King, so I was taken off guard by the fact that it was pretty scary and intense. (I don't know. I was thinking it was a comedy for some reason. ) But it was very good! Sarah asked, "Was this actually made in the 80s?" The graphics and sound are that spot on, and I felt like a little girl again watching TV. (Being set in 1983, I would've been 11/12.)

Anyway, it's way better than whatever show Sarah and Craig are currently watching...Arrow, I think. The acting is quite terrible in that, imo, but I digress.

[yovargas]

Anyway, it's way better than whatever show Sarah and Craig are currently watching...Arrow, I think. The acting is quite terrible in that, imo, but I digress.

And the writing and directing and the everything, imo, but I digress some more.

[Lalaith]

I literally start giggling whenever I happen to be around when they're watching it. It's THAT bad! And then they get annoyed with me, so I leave.

[Maria]

We gave up on Arrow after season one.

[Jude]

Aren't you and Freddy famous for giving MST3K-style commentaries on everything?

[Lalaith]

We used to be. He doesn't seem to be amused by my attempts to do that with Arrow. So I just remove myself from the room.

Anyway, Stranger Things...it has promise!

[Dave_LF]

Ok, in episode 2 Mike secretly shelters a girl who can only talk in single words in his basement. During a safe moment, he takes her around and shows off his stuff, including specifically his Star Wars figures. He plays hooky to stay with her instead of going to school, and and he hides her in a closet when his mom comes home. That's got to be a deliberate E.T. homage, right?

I'm enjoying the 80s motif a lot (but did they have mini-blinds back then? I don't remember mini-blinds. I keep getting distracted by these sorts of questions). It's hard to pinpoint when the world stopped looking like that.

[Alatar]

There's way too many homages to count. The blonde wig and dress is straight out of ET also. There's a bunch of videos that highlight all the homages, but I'd advise waiting till you've seen the entire series before watching them!

[Hachimitsu]

I have seen the whole thing. It's quite binge-able. I sometimes get distracted by the bad hair and bad decor. And it was really like that!

I will admit though, most of the 80's movies referenced, I haven't seen. I haven't seen all of E.T. or The Goonies. Or anything John Carpenter.

I have to say I found it really well done, and they found some incredibly good child actors.

[Lalaith]

Hidden text.

The monster is scary as hell.

Do. Not. Like.

[axordil]

I like a lot of pieces of Stranger Things, but I don't think they always go together into a cohesive whole. I call this the "X Files" effect, and a lot of shows with long arcs suffer from it to one extent or another. And I wish Winona Ryder was allowed more of an emotional range, which even given her character's circumstance is pretty constrained. It might be realistic, but too much of anything gets tiresome.

Honestly I liked Gravity Falls better.

[Nin]

Has anybody else started season2??

[Primula Baggins]

We intend to, but we can’t until the World Series is over. Last time around we watched one or two a weekend until we were done.

I get bingeing, but we don’t have room for it in our lives at this point. Evenings are short for us, and there’s too much else we have to get done on weekends.

[Alatar]

Waiting till all three kids are available at the same time is limiting! We're watching it as event TV, so we all have to be there.

[eborr]

I think it's just outstanding

[Lalaith]

I caught some of an episode of the second season. As usual, the writing is excellent. I'm just being a wuss about the scary stuff and the gore. I don't like being scared.

[eborr]

Just finished watching the series generally one episode a day although we watched one and two in a session and after watching Ep8, we just had to watch the last episode immediately afterwards.

Obviously no spoilers, but there was at least one moment where I wanted to cheer, but then I can be a soppy old thing and buy into characters.

I have seen some really good TV this year, and this was the most compelling